[(Numb. 13:2:) SEND MEN.] This text is related (to Is. 44:18): THEY NEITHER KNOW NOR UNDERSTAND; {THEY WALK IN DARKNESS,} FOR THEIR EYES ARE STUCK SHUT SO THAT THEY CANNOT SEE. What is the reason for saying, YOU YOURSELF SEND MEN, after the episode of Miriam (in Numb. 12:1ff.)?¹²., Numb. 4:5. It is simply that it was anticipated by the Holy One that they would come and utter slander against the land.¹³ The Holy One had said that they should not be able to say: We did not know what the penalty for slander was. For that reason he put this story next to the one in which Miriam was afflicted with leprosy, because she had spoken slander against her brother. This affliction happened so that everyone would know the punishment for slander. Thus it is stated (in Numb. 12:1–16, which ends): THEN AFTER THAT THE PEOPLE JOURNEYED FROM HAZEROTH¹⁴ AND ENCAMPED IN THE DESERT OF PARAN. It was a warning so that if they came to speak slander, they would consider the episode of Miriam; but even so, they did not desire to learn. It is therefore stated (in Is. 44:18): THEY NEITHER KNOW NOR UNDERSTAND. Therefore the Holy One wrote about the sending out of the spies after the episode of Miriam.

footnotes: ¹² Numb. R. 16:6; see Tanh ¹³ Sot. 34a. ¹⁴ Where they had waited seven days for Miriam to be cleansed from leprosy.